Man sentenced in Arizona human smuggling case

PHOENIX (AP) — A Guatemalan man who led a Little Rock, Arkansas-based ring that smuggled hundreds of immigrants into the United States from Mexico in 2012 and 2013 has been sentenced to prison.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Arizona says 37-year-old Rony Abimael Gonzales-Herrera was sentenced Wednesday by a federal judge in Phoenix to 57 months of incarceration.

Gonzales was arrested in May 2013 in Little Rock. He pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens.

Prosecutors say the ring used multiple stash houses in the Phoenix area as way stations for people being smuggled. Those houses included one discovered in January 2013 with more than 40 immigrants in the country illegally.

The ring also coordinated the illegal transportation of people illegally in the United States.